CHICAGO (AP) -- Matthew Hale, the self-styled "Pontifex Maximus" of a white supremacist group, was found guilty Monday of trying to have a federal judge killed after she ruled against him in a trademark case.

Hale, 32, was found guilty of four of the five charges against him. Hale, who preached a gospel of "racial holy war," was found innocent of one of two counts of soliciting the murder of a federal judge. The judge was not attacked.

The conviction comes almost five years after Hale first attracted national attention when a follower of his World Church of the Creator went on a deadly shooting rampage, targeting minorities in Illinois and Indiana.

Hale's reaction to Benjamin Smith's three-day shooting spree -- Hale laughed about it and imitated gunfire in secretly recorded tapes played for the jury -- was part of the prosecution's case.

Smith killed two people, including former Northwestern basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, and wounded nine before killing himself in July 1999 as police closed in.

Hale's defense attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin, said he believed his client immediately became a target of federal agents after Smith's rampage. He said Hale was prosecuted for his unpopular views -- not his actions -- and that the FBI planted a mole to try to lure Hale into a murder plot.

"He preached ridiculous philosophical beliefs and it was plastered all over all the tapes, and I think to ask the jury to rise above that maybe was more than I gave them credit for," Durkin said.

Hale sat with his hands clasped on the table as the verdicts were read. He dipped his head slightly but showed no other reaction. His parents refused to comment on their way out of the courthouse.

WE BELIEVE in the Eternal Laws of Nature as revealed through science, history, logic and common sense.

WE BELIEVE that the Highest law of Nature is the survival of our species by ALL MEANS AND AT ALL COSTS.

WE BELIEVE that our Race is our Religion.

WE BELIEVE that Racial loyalty is the greatest of all honors, and racial treason is the worst of all crimes.

WE BELIEVE that what is good for the White Race is the highest virtue, what is bad for the White Race is the ultimate sin.

WE BELIEVE that the White Race is the finest and noblest creation of Nature.

WE BELIEVE that CREATIVITY is the essence of the White Racial Soul.

WE BELIEVE that the White Race is and always has been the originator and creator of all worthwhile Culture and Civilization.

WE BELIEVE that without the White Race any worthwhile Culture and Civilization are impossible.

WE BELIEVE that for the White Race to survive, expand and advance we need first of all a REVOLUTION OF VALUES THROUGH RELIGION; therefore we completely and categorically reject the judeo - christian - democratic - marxist - liberal - feminist values of today, and supplant them with new and basic values, of which RACE IS THE FOUNDATION.

WE BELIEVE that Jew-spawned Christianity is the deadly mind poison which destroyed the glorious White Roman Civilization and is currently destroying all of the White Race; therefore Christianity must be exposed, defeated and eliminated in order to save the White Race.

WE BELIEVE that the one and only, true and revolutionary White Racial Religion - Creativity - is in every concievable way far more logical, consistent, comprehensive, meaningful and inspiring than all other religions, ideologies and political parties combined; therefore we strive to see that it eventually replace all other religions, ideologies and parties, barring none.

WE BELIEVE in the unity of our White Racial Religion with our White Racial State.

WE BELIEVE in the total unification of the White Race on the basis of one Racial Religion (Creativity) and one Racial Language (Latin) in a worldwide White Racial Community.

WE BELIEVE that the one and only, true and revolutionary White Racial Religion -- Creativity -- has the potential of not only leading the White People to a worldwide victory, but also guiding them onward for the next million years towards a New White Renaissance, a Whiter and Brighter World, and a Glorious Era of the White Superman.

WE BELIEVE that the White Race, its Biological and Cultural Heritage is now under attack by our mortal racial enemies : Jews, ******s and the mud races.

WE BELIEVE that, due to the Jew-instigated demographic explosion of the mud races, we must (as a matter of life and death!) not only start, but also win the worldwide White Racial Holy War within this generation.

WE BELIEVE that RAHOWA (RAcial HOly WAr), under the victorious flag of the one and only, true and revolutionary White Racial Religion - Creativity, is the only road to the resurrection and redemption of the White Race.

To the fulfillment of these Religious Beliefs we Creators forever pledge our Lives, our Sacred Honor and our Religious Zeal.

The secret services on behalf of the REAL world leaders, are working to silence all opposition to globalisation and the melting pot. The Vlaams Blok has become a casualty, David Lane, David Duke, to name but a few. We're all on their hit list, and after what I saw on TV tonight, I know the BNP is next Did anyone else watch the Hamza documentary?

The lesson of this is firstly that our enemies would like nothing better than to "decapitate" the movement by imprisoning its most famous activists. Secondly that anyone should be very suspicious about anyone who starts on about illegal activities.

The idea that someone could get 50 years for this is hideous, if it was a JDL person conspiring to kill a WN you can bet they wouldn't even be threatened with such a sentence.

White supremacist Matthew Hale often used the law to protect his racist rhetoric. But this time, Hale's words caught on secretly recorded tapes were about murder and were criminal, a federal jury determined Monday.

After 2-1/2 days of deliberations, 12 jurors, including five blacks and one Hispanic, found the leader of the former World Church of the Creator guilty of soliciting the murder of federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow and of three obstruction of justice charges.

As the verdict was read, Hale appeared tense, knitting his brow and clasping his hands before him. Hale's parents, his only supporters in the courtroom, showed no reaction and later refused to comment.

Prosecutors said the conversations with government informant Anthony Evola in December 2002, when Hale agreed to "exterminate the rat" on tape, convinced jurors of Hale's guilt.

Hale was found not guilty of a second solicitation count that was based on the word of former follower Jon Fox, who said Hale asked him to kill Lefkow after she ruled against Hale in a trademark infringement case.

The solicitation conviction carries up to 20 years in prison and each of the obstruction counts carries up to 10. Judge James T. Moody has not set a sentencing date.

Hale's attorney, Thomas A. Durkin, said Hale got his day in court, but "it was a strange day." Durkin said he believed jurors could not look past Hale's racist words, and his praise for Benjamin Smith's 1999 deadly shootings in Chicago and Indiana. Smith injured nine and killed two, former Northwestern University basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong and grad student Won-Joon Yoon. Jurors heard Hale mock Jewish and black victims on tape.

But at least one juror said they had worked hard to stick to the evidence and ignore Hale's racism. The most compelling evidence, the juror said, were e-mails and taped conversations between Hale and Evola.

Durkin tried to prove the FBI entrapped Hale by planting informant Anthony Evola in Hale's group in 1999. Durkin said it was Evola, not Hale, who repeatedly brought up murdering Lefkow and others. Hale named Evola his chief of security.

"I think [the government] set out to get Hale the day of the Ben Smith shootings and they've accomplished that," Durkin said.

Durkin said Americans should be frightened by the case because it shows the government will target a group if it has unpopular beliefs. "I don't think you can come away with any other sense than he was prosecuted for his beliefs," Durkin said. "That's a very dangerous slope to go down."

While Durkin said Hale would appeal, the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals is one of the most conservative in the country and rarely overturns convictions, experts say. Hale could appeal on the grounds that Moody should never have allowed jurors to hear Hale's racist views.

"I mean the tapes are almost exculpatory," former federal prosecutor James Shapiro said. "[Hale's] not soliciting the murder -- he's doing everything he can to try to distance himself from it. Was it that they just hated this guy so much?"